Furious 6 First Timers

Heather Young and her Dad, Ken Barnes, compete in their first ever CrossFit competition. Heather surprised herslf doing much better than she anticipated in her first ever competition.

Five events, 300 athletes and just about ten hours of Furious 6 action went down this past Saturday at CrossFit Fury.Last year, the Furious 5 marked the first competitive event in the new Fury space and the Furious 6 did not disappoint. “We are really starting to use the potential of the space we have and have really started to settle into this facility” says Owner and Coach Peter Egyed. Building on the success of the past five “Furious” events, the most recent competition was designed to be accessible to most athletes but would also allow the elite athletes in the group to be set apart by time and volume.

Mike Johnson teamed up with Josh Waldeck for the first time in the Furious 6 and tackled the puzzle together!

Coach Josh MacDonald said that the programming was designed to test different time domains “for example, there were short sprints, endurance events and events that required thought and coordination.” For this reason MacDonald said that it forced teams to work together and strategize. “It was not about combined individual efforts, but rather the best and strongest team” says MacDonald.

Jen Gourney competed in her first CrossFit competition with Carma Chisam making up the Mom Squad. Both had never competed before and Jen just had a baby less than 3 months ago!

In fact, teams who worked together in the past years changed things up this time around and found new partners to bring on first time competitors who would do well individually as well as compliment the team effort. First time competitors (in any team competition) included the following individuals: Heather Hege, Devon Hege, Dhevin Edwards, Jessie Collier, Angela Brunton, Kristen Coleman, Anna Rassmussen, Matt Chisam, Saxon Yandell, Chrissy Greer, Lyndsi Waldeck, Molly O’Hara, Melanie Laboy, Jen Gourney, Carma Chisam, Susie Kuhler, Teri McCallum, Mark Vanacore, Buck Richards, Mike Johnson, Josh Waldeck, Cas Saverino, Seve Torres and father daughter combo Ken Barnes and Heather Young and husband and wife team Jezel and Adam Bow.

Susie Kuhler competed in her first ever CrossFit competition teaming up with Brianne Stearns as Team Brusie!

These first timers were no slouches either. Throughout the day, athletes performed skills they had never tried before like the Hammer challenge and puzzle or attempted weights they never imagined they could get in class much less a competition. Coach Kelly McGuire competed in the event, but also enjoyed seeing some of her athletes fight for their “firsts” over the course of the event. “You get a confidence in competing for the first time. People think they can’t and they say they can’t and then they do” said McGuire.

Heather Hege caught the competition bug after Furious 6 and competed the following weekend in another team event-The C-Town Throwdown.

Heather Hege was one of these athletes “I had a lot of PR’s that day. The kettle bell and overhead squats were both personal records for me.” Heather’s husband, Devon also competed in the co-ed division and said the event was a lot of fun “we recommend everyone signing up for a competition at some point. Knowing we had to be prepared for a certain date helped us to stick to our paleo as well as be focused on our workouts.” Heather gained so much confidence in her first competition that she signed up for another team competition the following week-the Lululemon C-Town Throwdown.

Competing for a second year together, Team Trebecca comprised of Tracy Burns and Rebecca Taylor used their previous experience to strategize for this year’s five workouts. “I prefer endurance workouts, so I knew the 5:00 minutes [WOD with overhead squats] was going to be a struggle because it’s all about reps – everything counts so you just keep moving” said Burns. And that was a large part of how the event was intended to be. Coach Aimee Berencsi said that the workouts boded well for teams that had athletes who could counter each other’s weaknesses. With a no minimum rep requirement for athletes, your partner could get the reps in, but you could still keep moving. “You might get hung up somewhere, but you are not penalized for anything, you can still get your reps. It made the event exciting because everyone could be successful” said Berencsi. Men’s division competitor Cole McGuire agreed saying “the programming was phenomenal. There wasn’t anything that was not doable.” Cole and his partner Mark Schurkens finished 7th overall in the Men’s Division.

Mark Schurkens competed in his second Furious event but changed up partners this year and finished 7th overall with Prep Coach, Cole McGuire.

A great day to be an athlete and a great day to be a spectator. So, who’s in for Furious 7?